Compare methods

	Lithic Refitting	Chaine Operatoire
Field	Archaeology	Archaeology
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2005	1993
Originator	Developed within Palaeolithic technological studies; codified in macroscopic lithic analysis (Andrefsky)	Andre Leroi-Gourhan (concept); operationalized for lithics by Francois Sellet and the French technological school
Type	Physical reconstruction of knapping events by conjoining stone fragments	Analytical reconstruction of the full sequence of technical operations from raw material to discard
Seminal source	Andrefsky, W. (2005). Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Analysis (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521615006	Sellet, F. (1993). Chaine Operatoire; The Concept and Its Applications. Lithic Technology, 18(1-2), 106-112.
Aliases	Lithic Conjoining, Refitting Analysis, Flake Refitting, Core Reconstruction	Operational Sequence Analysis, Reduction Sequence Approach, Chaine Operatoire Analysis, Technological Sequence Analysis
Related	2	2
Summary	Lithic refitting is the physical reconstruction of stone-tool manufacture by conjoining flakes back onto their parent core and to one another, like reassembling a three-dimensional jigsaw of a single knapping episode. Because each flake removal leaves a negative scar and a matching fracture surface, an analyst who finds two fragments that fit can be certain they were once part of the same nodule and were detached in a known relative order. Refitting therefore recovers both the gestural sequence of stone working — the order, technique, and intent behind each removal — and the spatial relationships among the resulting pieces. When refitted artifacts come from different parts of a site or different stratigraphic units, the lines connecting them measure how material has moved, exposing post-depositional disturbance, intentional transport, and the integrity of the deposit. Andrefsky's standard treatment of macroscopic lithic analysis presents refitting as the most direct, if labor-intensive, window onto reduction technology and site formation.	The chaine operatoire, or operational sequence, is an analytical framework that reconstructs the entire ordered chain of technical actions and decisions by which a raw material is transformed into a tool, used, maintained, and finally discarded. Originating in the technological anthropology of Andre Leroi-Gourhan, the concept treats technology not as a set of finished objects but as a process — a sequence of gestures, choices, and constraints that materializes human know-how, or savoir-faire. As Sellet's influential synthesis explains, applying the chaine operatoire to stone tools means tracking material from its geological source through acquisition, core preparation, blank production, tool shaping, use and rejuvenation, and eventual abandonment, with every stage represented by characteristic artifacts and by-products. The approach is dynamic and behavioral rather than typological: it asks how and why objects were made the way they were. It complements attribute-based macroscopic analysis, which Andrefsky systematizes, by binding individual technological readings into a coherent narrative of production from start to finish.